Residents are fighting to try and save a cafe which has been a casualty of council plans to re-vamp an ageing seafront.

The Boardwalk Cafe at Watts Slope, Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, is due to be bulldozed by North Tyneside Council to make way for a promenade which would link up the new Spanish City Plaza and Northern Promenade.

While a farewell party for the 149-year-old cafe has already been advertised by its owners, people living in the community are determined not to lose this popular beach side eatery.

A petition set up by Barbara Cornfoot amassed 1,545 signatures in five days - she believes an indication of residents’ strength of feeling which the council cannot ignore.

She said: “North Tyneside Council are now required to formally acknowledge this petition. Please don’t forget to keep sharing this petition to your friends, family and contacts.

“There is also a Facebook group called Save and Revamp the Boardwalk. Feel free to join and add any ideas you may have to raise the profile of the petition or simply to discuss the venue.”

Kerry Campbell from Shiremoor in North Tyneside, who has signed the petition, said: “I have lived in Whitley Bay all my life and was always at the beach when I was a child with family and friends we always visited Watts Cafe/Boardwalk and can’t believe its imminent proposed destruction.

“It is a fantastic party venue at night and with more support would be a viable cafe. Surely the present owners deserve more than this treatment for putting up with the surrounding dereliction and mess?”

North Tyneside Council has it has made several attempts to work with previous tenants of the Boardwalk Café to make the business viable, but this had ‘unfortunately proven to be unsuccessful’.

They have said any existing commitments for weddings and party bookings up to the first weekend in September will still be honoured before work begins.

Barbara, who hopes her petition on website change.org will attract up to 2000 signatures in the coming weeks.

She said: “There has been a cafe on that site for 149 years which is 33 years less than St. Mary’s Lighthouse and 45 years less than the iconic Spanish City. The council want to improve the view to St. Mary’s Lighthouse despite the cafe is not obstructing it and may replace it with a kiosk which does not really cut it with the British weather as it is.

“Yes the cafe may not be as iconic as the lighthouse but all you have to is read some of the comments included on the petition to see how dearly the cafe is held to many, and you cannot replace 149 years of history. How many other cafes have been around that long in the North East of England, never mind just Whitley Bay?”

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The Boardwalk Cafe was originally developed as Watts Cafe in 1865, 45 years before the Spanish City, by Andrew Hodgson Watts and was run by the Watts family for generations.

The current owners of the cafe have announced plans for a ‘Goodbye Party’ at the cafe on Sunday, August 31, from 7.30pm.